TRIP Database & TRIP Answers

To browse other articles on a range of HSL topics, see the wiki index.

Introduction

See also PubMed - MEDLINE and SumSearch

The TRIP database (Clinical Search Engine) - http://www.tripdatabase.com is a freely-available search tool used to find medical evidence. Although international, it presents considerable content and information originating in the United Kingdom. TRIP began in 1997 as a result of founders Jon Brassey (see blog Liberating the literature) and Dr. Chris Price who wanted to design a tool to find information for clinical questions. Its goal was to return answers in a quick time frame and locate best evidence. To identify best evidence, materials were culled from various databases and relevant websites. TRIP is an indispensable way to find evidence quickly. According to its publicity, manual searches of evidence-based sites are performed to build the database. TRIP aims to assist researchers in locating high-quality materials.

• See 2009 UofA POC tools handout and Where's the best evidence? 2010

• TRIP is on Twitter - http://twitter.com/jrbtrip

2011 Upgrade

The latest version of TRIP was released in August 2011 featuring:

• Translate introduced, allowing users to translate the search results and subsequent links into one of six languages (Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese and Welsh)
• DOI (Digital object identifier) is displayed, this is to facilitate the identification of full-text articles
• Clinical trials are highlighted via links to clinicaltrials.gov; search terms are sent to guidelines.gov and returned to TRIP
• Clinical calculators related to the search terms are now displayed
• Restrict the results to new research only
• The site is significantly faster
• New results page design
• Incorporating new content including medical education, patient decision aids, and content from social media and videos (now over 6,100)

Searching

• See also Yale University School of Medicine's TRIP tutorial

Searching in many keyword-driven search tools is often confined to searches of "title" and/or "title and text". In TRIP, the idea is that citations about the topic 'asthma' are most likely reflected in articles titles. While useful to search for titles, a over-reliance on keyword title searching presents retrieval problems. Even in titles, searching for asthma generates false hits and overload. Identifying relevant material is difficult as users often want to combine two or three additional terms not found in the title or text. In TRIP, it is recommended that:

1. title searches be performed first, then;
2. title and text searches
3. combine at least two sets
4. click on categories and browse results

Most physicians are familiar with Google, and add terms to search quickly across the web. Average numbers of search terms per search is gradually increasing over time as users becoming more sophisticated. Therefore, increased use of terms is reflected now in TRIP. The challenge is to try and mimic the Google search interface yet still return good results. TRIP has produced a system that works well, according to Jon's blog. His plan is to continue to improve the search algorithm.

TRIP Answers & TILT

In 2008, TRIP released a new website called TRIP Answers which is a free repository of clinical questions and answers from a global network of information services. TRIP answers holds 6,381 questions and answers, the bulk of which originate from primary care doctors with the majority answered by information specialists. After 16 months and over 1,100,000 page views the site has had a major overhaul in 2010.

Today I Learnt That... is a "free place to record and share clinical learning". Within the TRIP database, TILT buttons are starting to appear next to each result. TRIP has been experimenting with TILT where users write notes about what they have learned from particular papers, and can tag articles. Others rate the comments (e.g. agree, disagree). http://blog.tripdatabase.com/2010/11/adding-tilt-button-to-other-sites.html

References

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• Chen X. MetaLib, WebFeat, and Google: the strengths and weaknesses of federated search engines compared with Google. Online Inf Rev. 2006;30(4):413–27.
• Fyfe T. Turning Research Into Practice (TRIP) J Med Libr Assoc. 2007 April; 95(2): 215–216.
• Haynes RB. Of studies, syntheses, synopses, and systems: the “4S” evolution of services for finding current best evidence. Evid Based Med. 2001. Mar/Apr; 6:(2):36–8.
• Howse DK, Bracke PJ, and Keim SM. Technology mediator: a new role for the reference librarian? Biomed Digit Libr [serial online]. 2006. Oct; 3:10.
• Johnson PT, Chen JK, Eng J, et al. A comparison of world wide web resources for identifying medical information. Acad Radiol 2008;15:1165–72.
• Ketchell DS. PrimeAnswers: A Practical Interface for Answering Primary Care Questions. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2005;12:537-545.
• Meats E, Brassey J, Heneghan C, and Glasziou P. Using the Turning Research Into Practice (TRIP) database: how do clinicians really search? J Med Libr Assoc. 2007. Apr; 95(2):156–63.
• Montori VM, Ebbert JO. TRIP database. Evid Based Med. 2002. Jul/Aug; 7:(4):104.
• Riordan FAI, Boyle EM, Phillips B. Best paediatrics evidence; is it accessible and used on-call? Arch Dis Child 2004;89:469–71.
• Tumolo J. Open sesame? Increasing access to medical literature. Pediatrics 2004;114:265–8.